Why is Rafa Nadal not so good on hardcourt?

Question

Because clay (slow surface) is his best, he won wimbledon (the quickest). So why is he bad on hardcourt since the surface should be closer to to clay on speed, than grass?

And, is there a chance that Djokovic might fall down in the rankings, he lost to Safin early Wimbledon.

Answer 1

because every one is not Roger Federer that is excellent on all courts.

Answer 2

well,for one it is his serve. it sits up and the spin he applies tends not to be such a factor as on clay. and also the speed....it just doesn't have the sting so it's a very attackable serve and he can't get alot of free points on it. but having said that too,if he can adjust that as he did so brilliantly for the grass and flatten it out and add some mph's he could do well. also,in the last years he's been prone to sticking to mostly baseline defense when he should be alot more aggressive.

as for djokovic...i think he'll recover from wimby and regain his form for the hardcourts. it's his best surface afterall;where he feel his most confident. i don't think losing so early at wimby will hinder him whatsoever.

Answer 3

uve asked a good question and uve got pretty avg answers 2.

i dont have much time but i think that on clay obviously his spin is dead hard 2 control and he grinds his opponents down. and he runs forever and has alot of pace so that helps heaps on a slower court. pple find it hard 2 hit winners and end up feeling the pressure against someone always getting the ball back and make unforced errors. of course its not just that, clay gives nadal more time 2 unleash some aamzing angles. serve also less important, and since his is considered a weaker part of his game this helps him.

on grass he finds it easy 2 hit winners, its fast enuf for a ball 2 be a winner that might not on hard court, and therefore his excellent returning and the extra pace help Nadal to hit shots players cannot get too. He also moves well on grass unlike alot of players, and his spin is still effective- esp on the serve. his slice has also come leaps and bounds.

on hard court i think he finds it a tricky pace that other players can hit winners off. its kind of an equaliser of a court, pple rally better against ndal cos his spin is not as effective and still he he cant hit as many stunning winners because it isnt fast enough. his shots just become more 'normal' as such, and he becomes a lot more level with the other top tenners, or top six maybe. Its becomes easier to well... outrally him because other players get more oppertunities to hit good shots. tsonga was a great example.

It will be interesting to see how Rafa goes this hard court season, he didnt do outstandlingly at the start of the year, but neither did Rog, and we all know they have both improved alot since then.

pple blame rafas knees, and altho they r a prob a factor near the end of a tourny, i think theres alot more 2 it than that.

its not that nadal isnt good on hard court- he definatly is- its just like u said, hes not AS good. Thank god... cos then Roger would be even more worried right now!

Answer 4

I think 3 things. Since he learned to be a lefty in tennis when he is naturally right-handed, his serve is much slower than what it should be for someone so muscular and big. Even Venus serves at a higher speed than Rafa. Serve is not that important on clay as the bounce slows it down and the grass helps it to skid with his spin to make it more effective. On hard courts, it doesn't help him much and is easier to return.

Second, he does not get that much depth on his ground strokes. On clay, he could get away with it with the topspin and his excellent court coverage skills. On grass, the spin creates problems as well as the bounce is not predictable. On hard court, it sits up nicely in the front court and an aggressive player can crush it for a winner. That's why even Blake, Berdych, Tsonga, Youzny and Nalbandian match up well on hardcourts for Nadal. He needs to learn to hit flatter and stay around the baseline (or even inside it) to have more depth on his shots. That is something he will learn to do in the next couple of seasons but hopefully before his knees give out.

Which brings me to the last point which is his knees. They take a pounding on the hard surface and his endurance is severely tested, especially in the latter tournaments of the hardcourt season. I have never seen him so physically consumed as he was when he lost to Ferrer in last year's open. Either he needs to get some serious help from Dr. Scholl or severely limit his hardcourt season, something his uncle/coach hinted lately.

Regarding the joker, he will be fine. Wimbledon was an anomaly. The mental pressure got to him finally. His close loss to Nadal was one of the greatest matches in Queens. The Wimbledon loss will help him loosen up and come back stronger this summer. IMO, Nadal and Djokovic will toggle for the top spot in 2009 and beyond. Federer's record of consecutive weeks @ No.1 will hold for several decades as well.

Answer 5

he is good on hardcourt. but many other players are better than him.

maybe also his forehand is not lethal enough in hard court.

if djokovic cannot be consistent with his performance, he might lose some points (but not rankings i think, because the margin between no3 and no4 is wide enough)

Answer 6

Nadal is a perfectionist, very methodical, and patient. He grew up on clay, and his best surface, and mastered  it. His next in line was the Wimbledon, and he won it , not easily though. Ultimately, he wants to be the master of all surfaces.

Borg never wont he US Open. Nadal won the Indian wells 2007. Final at the Miami 2007. Semi at the Aussie 2008. So, we shall see how he performs at the US Open. For a while I kind of blamed Toni Nadal, but Rafa has a group of specialists to coach him on all surfaces. Rafa also has play pals of all courts.

Answer 7

No one thought he would be good on grass either but look what hapened.  He's just not that experienced on hard but in a little while he'll be winning hard too.

Answer 8

Not the easiest question to answer, there are a number of factors involved.

The first has to be his knees, which has has continual problems with.  Both are tightly strapped before each match on every surface.  The impact pressure is the highest on hard courts.  That basically means that the longer he is playing on hard courts, the more speed he will lose.  So by the semi finals etc, he will have lost a step or two in terms of pace because of the stress on his knees.  You only have to watch one of his matches to see how often he manages to keep points going that look finished ... that is how important that one step is.  On a clay court the sliding takes away a lot of the impact stress, grass is also lower impact.  What is key about grass is that it is a very short season, and follows on from the clay court season.  So not only have his knees had a bit of a break, but he is also at the peak of his confidence in himself.

You mention grass being the fastest surface, which it still is, but it isn't anywhere nearly as fast as it was 5 years ago.  The Wimbledon courts are playing significantly slower.  The difference between hard courts, in terms of speed, are getting narrower by the year.  So he will still be a big danger on hard courts to any player.

The other main issue is his serve; he has to do more with it on a hard court..  Speed isn't everything , but it helps.  Accuracy would help just as much for him though.  That or to be more aggressive after his serve.  Too often on hard courts he loses control of his service points because he isn't hitting the fastest serve and then looking to play from the back of the court.  That puts him under some pressure right away.  Most of the time he can overpower his way back to control again, but he knows it would be a lot easier to have a better serve.  Which is obviously easier said than done.

As for Djokovic; he is easily third.  He has about 5000 ranking points, and Ferrer in fourth only has around 3000.  So he won't be dropping from third this year!

Answer 9

I heart Rafa, I know you love him and he is AMAZING on hard courts but we all know he will dominate much more on clay. Do not think I am disrespecting him because I was rootin for him on Wimbledon.

The reason he can't do so well on hard surface was because he is so used to clay courts where ball bounces are slower, especially on serve. That is why you notice how easy it was for Federer to ace him on serves (not talking about this year

Wimbledon but he did make aces). The faster speed on harder surfaces is not what he was used to on clay. This is also the reason why he does not focus on his serves that much either, it really does not change the outcome of clay-court games, which is also why you do not see him make alot of aces on his games. He's now starting to make a weapon out of it however.

Plus on clay where hitting fast, flat balls will not pull a winner, topspin and backspin play more of an important factor in winnning the games. While on hard courts, topspin is important but power balls with barely any spin are just as important (if not more). That is something Nadal lacks but compensates for with spin (We all know those record breaking rotations Nadal puts on a ball). Those fast power balls that are super flat are not what he expects either when he plays on foreign courts but after watching Wimbledon, he is now getting used to countering those shots. Nadal is already getting the hang of predicting these shots and I won't be shocked if he wins the Aussie Opens and US Opens.

Don't worry about Djokovic, he basically come back to where he originally was on when he starts playing on hard courts, the ones he is incredibly good at.

Answer 10

What ever I say now may have applied prior to his Wimbledon victory. But not anymore.

He was primarily a clay court player, but if he can adjust well towards grass then he definitely has a chance in hard courts from now on.

Earlier, why he may not have done too well was probably because in clay courts the ball bounces slower. Hard Courts result in faster speed and he may not have been used to that.

I think he's getting the hang of it though. He'll do better.

Answer 11

It isn't the fact that he is not GOOD on hard courts, it is just hate fact that he is BETTER on clay courts. (and grass) now obviously from beating federer 3 times consecutively on clay courts, that must mean his is very good on it. that is because he has so much topspin, which is very hard to return. clay court takes topspin and uses it very well the the player's advantage. on grass the topspin advantage isn't as good, but it is still decent. but hard courts, well, they aren't very easy to put good topspin on.

As for Djokovic, there is a chance that could drop down, but I highly doubt it, unless he keeps losing and losing, it wont really happen that soon. GO DJOKOVIC!!!! :))

Answer 12

B/c of  his vigorous playing style. It's not good for his joints to pound on the hardcourts. In fact, his Uncle Toni doesn't even want him to play on hardcourts b/c he gets too many injuries. Wimbledon surface is not the quickest.  Hardcourts are. And Djokovic won't fall in the rankings b/c everyone else in the top 10 didn't do so hot either.

Answer 13

It might be because of the way he runs and the hardcourt has too much impact on his feet

Answer 14

Rafa isnt ``not sooo good on hardcourts``! He has won a few hardcourt titles and beat Roger on that surface before !!! People always brand rafa just a ``claycourter`` its annoying, because he isnt!!! Yes its not his favourite surface but he`s improving all the time and theres no reason why he cant win at the US or Aussie Open :) ! His serve is now a weapon which is going to be very effective this hard season :P i predict Rafa to win US and Aussie open ;) hehe call me crazy if ya like !!!! Nadal is the best :P woo ! x*x

As for Novak no he`s still #3 !

Answer 15

I think it is mostly because of the knee. In hard courts, it is easier to slip and is not comfortable stepping on the courts compared to clay and grass courts. Injuries happen more on hard courts.

Answer 16

He is good on all surfaces :-))

I lovee Rafa x

He is sooo talented and deserves to the the world #1 and he will be =)

Vamos Rafa the US and Aussie are yours :-) xx

Answer 17

I am glad you recognise that Rafa is not 'as good' on hard courts as many say he can't play full stop.

The reason is the courts are alot faster and suit players who stand inside the baseline and attack. Players like Djokovic, Roddick and of course Federer love this surface and I also think Murray will be his most successful on this surface.

I think for Nadal its just a case of learning exactly how to play on hard courts he has the ability to certainly but will have to alter his game for the surface. We have seen the massive strides he has made in the last 2 years on grass and has seemingly got better every match he has played. Even more incredible, at the French this year he was even better and that's on clay! His potential is scary.

Against Tsonga at the Aussie at the beginning of the year was Tsonga too was a brilliant athlete and was coming up with the big shots that Rafa didn't have any answers to. I am sure he learnt so much from that match and we will I am sure see improvements.

His raw ability and athleticism means he should always get to the semis on any surface but to win on the hard courts he has to play inside the baseline.

Answer 18

he clearly improved a lot for wimbledon, let's wait and see.

If his service improves some more, I think he should get into quarterfinal for hardcourt.

Answer 19

Well his knee!! But hopefully he wins the us open not ugly federer or cocky djokovic !!!GO RAFA!!